


Valuables

by RunRabbitRun



Category: The Hobbit (2012), The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Family, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Mother-Son Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-22
Updated: 2012-12-22
Packaged: 2017-11-21 23:26:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/603218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunRabbitRun/pseuds/RunRabbitRun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dís braids her sons' hair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Valuables

**Author's Note:**

> For the kink meme prompt:"I've just rewatched Hobbit and noticed - Fili and Kili have matching clasps in their hair. The story behind this please? (To me, they're parting gifts from their mother, but I'd like to see what others come up with."
> 
> Also, just for funzies (and because I'm an animal nerd), Dis's dogs are a [Cairn Terriers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairn_Terrier), a hardy breed of little shaggy-coated diggers.

"Oww, Mama!" Kíli whined. "You're pulling."

"Oh, hush," Dís scolded. "I've seen you fall from trees and wrestle over rocks with the other boys without a complaint and now you're whining when your mother fixes your hair?" Nevertheless, she gently gripped a lock of Kíli's long hair high up, next to the scalp, before she ran her silver comb through it again. Kíli quieted.

"You look so pretty, Kee, just like a bride on her wedding day" Fíli said, snickering. Kíli scowled and swiped at his brother with a loosely curled fist. Thorin, seated on the hearth and sharpening his knives, cleared his throat loudly. The boys settled almost instantly. Dís smiled conspiratorily at her elder brother, who winked at her. 

"I don't see why you're so happy, Fíli. You're next," said Dís pleasantly. Her eldest son rolled his eyes and groaned. In a way, Dís did feel sorry for them; if they were common Dwarflings they would be able to dress as they pleased and sit with the other youngsters at their separate table, free to raise hell. But they were heirs to the House of Durin, Grandchildren of Thror and Thrain, and she would be damned before she let them forget it. So she combed their hair with her finest (her only) silver comb and set silver and gold beads in their hair. The beads were the work of several years worth of careful collecting. A few were even her own, the very same adornments she'd been wearing the day that wretched wurm attacked. 

Kíli whined and fidgeted but eventually Dís managed to finish weaving the last braid into his hair. She gathered the slender plaits at the back of his head and bound them all together with a wide silver clasp. It wasn't the prettiest or the most valuable piece she owned, but it held great value to her: it was one of a matching set of two Honir had been wearing the day the tunnel collapsed, killing him and his mining team almost instantly. There hadn't been much of her husband to bury, but Dís had salvaged these two treasures. 

Dís's eyes no longer stung at the thought of her late husband, but the sight of the precious metal glinting in Kíli's hair, or of it's twin shining in Fíli's fingers as he absently turned it over in his hands, made her old heart beat strangely. She wordlessly dismissed Kíli and beckoned Fíli over with a crook of her finger. Fíli was a good boy, and he liked dressing up a good deal more than he would ever admit, so his braids were finished much faster than wily Kíli's. Kíli held the infamous streak of Durin Wildness as well as the dark coloring, but Fíli had his father's steady temperament to match the golden hair he inherited from him. Thank Mahal, Dís thought. Kíli was trying enough on his own, even with Thorin's steady hand to help her rein him in. Two wild children would be overwhelming. Speaking of which...

"Ah, Kíli!" Thorin scolded, pulling the boy up by his tunic, away from where he had been rolling around with Dís's scrappy terriers. "Don't give your mother yet more work to do, boy." 

"Sorry, Uncle."

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to your mother for nearly ruining her hard work."

Kíli muttered something. Thorin cuffed his ear, somehow managing to not displace a single braid on the boy's head.

"Sorry, Mama," Kíli said, audibly this time.

Fíli giggled at his brother's predicament as his mother bound his braids in silver. When she finished, she tapped his shoulder.

"You boys can go play now, but you meet us at the hall in half an hour, do you hear? And don't loose your beads or muss your hair. There will be hell to pay if you show up to the feast looking like ragamuffins."

Her boys were out the door like flashes of gold and black flame, their hair glittering in the low torchlight.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] Valuables](https://archiveofourown.org/works/617826) by [reena_jenkins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reena_jenkins/pseuds/reena_jenkins), [RunRabbitRun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunRabbitRun/pseuds/RunRabbitRun)




End file.
